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 We spent it up north at Refugio beach. I booked a beach camping trip many months ago not realizing that school was starting a week earlier this year (what is wrong with me lately?) It's why all my family came into town. So they are all still up camping and I am home with Henry who absolutely did not want to miss the first day of school. And I don't blame him. Besides, it's a good thing we decided to come back early. His mother only packed his swimming suit and pajama bottoms (seriously?) for the entire trip. I have a soon-to-be first grader on my hands. First grade. We were out running some last minute errands and he was holding my hand while we were walking around. I wondered how much longer I would get to enjoy that before he doesn't want to be seen with me! 
 He was so excited that he got to snuggle up in my bed tonight so we read a story (The Pigeon Wants a Puppy) and the conversation went like this:

"I love you, Henry."

"I love you, too, Mom.

Mom, you're my best friend (long pause)…. no wait….Pops is my #1 best friend. You are my #2 best friend" 

At least I made the list. I guess there could be worse things in the world than coming in second to Pops (He's pretty hard to top.)

 I'm going to miss our all day beach trips. We had a good Summer. 

And just because I couldn't resist:
Lunch is packed (requested bow-tie noodles with butter & parmesan), clothes are laid out, and the apple for the teacher is snug in it's cozy. We'll return with a full report 🙂

Hi! We made it home earlier in the week. We had such a good time and now have my sister in town from Wisconsin with new baby Bridgette that we got to meet for the first time (she is so cute!) My brother, Mom and her husband are also here staying with us. I'll do the math for you- that's 11 people staying in our 2 bedroom apartment. It's awesome. It's so fun to see everyone. I was finally able to paint my patio chairs and make some new pillows for the couch before they came. More on that later.   It was an exciting week. All the school classroom assignments were posted on the front doors of the school last Thursday. Henry had been hoping all summer that he'd be in the same class as his BFF and all summer long I tried to mentally prepare him that there was a good chance they wouldn't be together. And in the end…they ended up in the same class. Joy all around. He actually has a really great class this year with lots of old friends. School starts on Wednesday. He still needs a backpack and lunchsack. I didn't order them online in time and now with the holiday on Monday, I'm really toast. Not sure what we are going to do yet. He has his heart set on certain ones. His Mother is such a procrastintor.   We are taking advantage of these last few days of our summer vacation. We went to The Grove/Farmers Market with friends for a movie, lunch & doughnuts (you gotta have the doughnuts..)  and are looking forward to spending this week with extended family and the first day of school.

Oh and watch for a cooking 101 tute from my brother:  He makes a mean pot of homemade beans. 

He doesn't mess around.

A plastic slide

+

a perfectly sculpted bowl hairdo 

=

I decided to load up the children and take them on a little va-ca before school starts in September, so here we are:   They are happy as clams: We went swimming today at the Scera which was awesome. I've never been there and the kids loved it. A great pool for little ones (except for the part where Kate had to be rescued by a hunky lifeguard…whoops!)

More non-life threatening good times to come!

 I went to a baby shower last week and had the most scrumptious salad. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It was light and lemony and hearty and sweet. It is my new favorite and I couldn't wait to make it myself. I scoured the internet and am pretty sure I found the right recipe.

 There is a dressing made of fresh basil leaves, shallots, lemon juice buttermilk and mayo that I blended in my cuisinart. I'm sure it'd work in a blender, too.  Sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste.   Make the couscous and set aside. Slice  up the tomato's (I left the smaller ones ones whole)  Toss into a bowl with craisins, parmesan. Add to cooled couscous. Mix well.   Isn't it gorgeous? Next add some dressing & arugula and mix well.
eateh  njknjk  jnjknjk 

 I went to a baby shower last week and had the most scrumptious salad. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It was light and lemony and hearty and sweet. It is my new favorite and I couldn't wait to make it myself. I scoured the internet and am pretty sure I found the right recipe.

 The dressing is made of fresh basil leaves, shallots, lemon juice, buttermilk and mayo that I blended in my cuisinart. I'm sure it'd work in a blender, too.  Sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste.   Make the couscous and set aside. Slice  up the tomato's (I left the smaller ones ones whole)  Toss into a bowl with craisins, parmesan. Add to cooled couscous. Mix well.   Isn't it gorgeous? Next add some dressing & arugula and mix well. Delicious! It's best eaten on the patio while listening to Cannonball Adderley's "Somethin' Else" just after you've finished your game of chess & checkers (Henry is a huge fan). Summer Couscous Salad

• 1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 shallot, halved
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• 1/3 cup grated Asiago cheese*
• 1/3 cup dried currants
• 1/3 cup shelled pumpkin seeds

• 1 10-ounce package plain couscous, cooked according to package instructions (about 5 cups)
• 3 cups coarsely chopped arugula
• 1 pound plum tomatoes, seeded, diced (about 2 cups)
• 2 grilled chicken breast halves, diced
• 2 cups fresh corn kernels (from about 2 ears)

Happy Summer!

I received a frantic message from my grandma on Friday which sounded extremely urgent.  She asked that I call her back as soon as possible. Dare I say the tone of her voice had a bit of trembling in it. I was certain someone had died. I called back. It was urgent. I believe her exact wording was that she "had figs coming out of her ears" and that I needed to come and pick them up immediately!  I loaded the children into the car and we headed straight to her house where we picked up about 75 figs. I love figs but me & Kate are the only ones who eat them. I started googling recipes and decided to give fig newtons a try. They were a disaster. Bad all around. I need to try another recipe. I should make some jam, too. The figs will only last a few days in the fridge so I need to get moving. We now have figs coming out of our ears. It's all very dramatic and pressing, this fig business.  I would stay far, far away from them if I were you. Onto other extremely urgent and pressing news: I need to get a farmhouse STAT. I find myself constanly looking at real estate in far away places (we are in no position to buy, just for the record) but I think I'm growing tired of Los Angeles. I want to move out to the middle of no where, where the children and chickens (Chris says chickens are so hot right now) can roam free.  Today it started with me looking for jobs for Chris. There were a few in New York, so I  google farmhouses in upstate NY and found the most amazing works of art designed by Charles Petersheim. He designs and builds incredible mini & micro cottages and farmhouses. I am completely in love with the design of these (even the itty bitty ones!) If you scroll to the bottom of their homepage, you can see their 'sold' properties. I am loving "FARMHOUSE #15 (even the garage totally rocks!) The fixtures and details are everything I would ever want in a home. How fun would it be to have a little two bedroom cottage in the woods to escape to on the weekends (I always talk about our '2nd house' but realize we don't even own a '1st house'). I love the concept of smaller homes (although the farmhouses are the largest of the bunch) and they all come with substantial acreage. I love everything about them AND they are totally affordable. I want, I want, I need, I need.

You can read what's happening on their blog

(which is very charming and witty by the way)

catskillfarms.blogspot.com

The website is:

thecatskillfarms.com

You'll be drooling in no time.

Baby Bridgette's quilt finally arrived in the mail and so I've been given the green light to share it with you. If you remember, the fabrics were a combination of ones that Vanessa chose and the rest were from my stash. She specifically requested a 'non-square' quilt but I was so gaga on the idea of doing a "plus" quilt, that I went for it anyway. It seemed so fitting for baby B who was an "addition" to their family. If you click on the link, you can see more pic's on my sisters blog.   I started this quilt on Tues and was able to get it done tonight just in time for a baby shower (okay I was 30 minutes late because it was still in the dryer.)My Mom is in town and if she were not here this week there is no way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks that I'd be able to get it done. I told the Mama-to-be that I wanted to make her a quilt and asked what her style/favorite colors were. She said she likes "neutral colors and gray".  I was baffled on what to do. I tend to make bright crazy quilts and this would be a big departure from what I normally do. I hit the fabric store on Tues and grabbed the dark grey (it's looking navy in these pictures) and brown which ended up being two of my favorite colors. I debated on using a patterned fabric but in the end thought simple would be better. I bought 4 colors: grey, brown, creme and then the wildcard: light blue. Each color was cut into  4", 3", 2 1/2" and 2" strips and then pieced together until it looked just right. I think the gray and light blue ended up looking the best next to eachother which you can see it in the pic above on the left hand side. The back side was the creme, blue, brown and gray. It's hard to tell in this pic, but the gray ended up taking up about 1/2 of the back of the quilt and the other colors split the remaining space. This was completely different than anything that I've ever done before. I never done just solid colors and I've never really worked with a lot of neutral colors but I ended up really liking this. It was simple and I think I might need to make something like this for Henry's bed…

Sewing Summer dresses was on the agenda for Kate, but gosh can you even believe we are almost 1/2 way through August? We have one month of Summer left (and one more beach camping trip!) I may be able to eek out a dress….or maybe a skirt 🙂

XO

My sister has been making her own laundry detergent for some time now and I decided to hit her up for her recipe. She had broken it all down in to some obsurd amount that it ended up costing per load (I think about .6 cents as opposed to about .25 cents for major brands). I was all hyped up about trying it out and making my own. She sent me the list of ingredients (all 3) and said they could be found in the laundry aisle at Walmart. This only posed a small problem which is that there are no Walmarts in West Los Angeles. Okay there is one 8 miles away but it's super ghetto and I avoid it like the plague. The next option is about 15 miles away. I went. They had the Borax and Fels Naptha. No washing soda. So I head home, go to another walmart 15 miles away another day and still, no washing soap.  Obviously at this point, it's not cheaper for me to make my own because I can't find anyone who carries the Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. I tried pharmacys, grocery stores, home depots, etc.,. It was ridiculous that I couln't get my paws on this magical potion. Finally, I found a little hardware store on Sepulveda (if any of you locals are brave enough to try your own 🙂 and purchased a box for about $5.00. My sis says she paid $2.98 at Walmart so the cost of making this yourself is really going to depend on where you live and how easy it is to track down the ingredients. I paid .97 cents for each bar of fels-naptha, $2.98 for the box of borax and $4.98 for the washing soda. Here's what you'll need:

Box of Borax

(4) bars of Fels Naptha soap

(1) box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (Not baking soda)

Directions:
Start out by grating one bar of soap with a cheese grater & place it into a cuisinart or blender. Add (1) cup of borax & (1) cup of washing soda. Pulse/blend until well combined. Store in an airtight container. Use 2 Tablespoons per full load (1 Tbsp for 1/2 loads). The soap will not foam up like your standard laundry soap but it's still working!

I quadroupled the recipe to get the most use out of the ingredients.Because I don't have a washer/dryer in my apartment and have to carry the soap out to the laundry room,  I chose to store it in Kerr canning jars. If you have laundry in your place (I'm jealous) you can store it in one big container. 
Let me know if you try it~

Happy washing!

XO

(p.s. let it be known that laundry is the chore I loathe/dread the most)

 We've been:

Enjoying the shore

Trying out new recipes and thinking of ways they can be tweaked to make them even more delicious (that one above is stuffed with feta & bacon) 

Trying out new fortune cookie recipes and coming up with new 'mis-fortunes' to go inside. Henry came up with that one, just so you know….

Enjoying downtime after a most delicious lunch at Aunt Ellen's house on Sunday.

Happy August to you (August, already???)

xo